The Olympic torch protests continue -- the flame was seems to have been snuffed out twice in Paris, and more protests are promised today. The IOC is now calling for a peaceful solution to the unrest, which is literally now all over the globe.
UPDATE: Was the flame merely lowered?
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Police fired on monks and civilians in Kardze in eastern Tibet, killing eight. Radio Free Asia has a lot of info on this. The monks objected to a re-education program they were forced to undergo, and the government objected to their objections. Some sources say as many as fifteen were killed, and there are also reports of at least two monks in Sichuan province committing suicide:
On Saturday, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in India, said two monks committed suicide last month in Sichuan's Aba County following government oppression.
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Two recent finds from the Worst Horse: The Urban Zen Foundation, founded by Donna Karan and Sonja Nuttall, which is about empowering patients and inspiring "change in the areas of well-being," and If It's Hip, It's Here: a collection of Buddha-shaped items.
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40 years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee.
This April 6th, join the "Be the Change" walk in New York City, which will conclude with a tribute to Gandhi in Union Square Park.
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Thanks to Precious Metal for the pointer. He writes, "Tibet isn't a Buddhist litmus test":
As the violence in Tibet has continued, the Dalai Lama issued a stern statement that he could not align himself with insurrection in his home country. Buddhism rests on several pillars, one of which is nonviolence. Tibet quickly became a kind of Buddhist litmus test.
How much pain and oppression can you stand and still exhibit loving kindness and compassion? I wonder if that's really fair. The Tibetans face a political crisis that should be met with political action. Whatever that action turns out to be, nobody should be seen as a good or bad Buddhist, anymore than defending your house from an intruder tests whether a Christian is living by the precepts of Jesus.
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China is cracking down on many minorities, not just Tibetans. The world has to keep an eye out for this. Tibet grabs the headlines, but there are many other groups also at risk. Case in point is the protests in Xinjiang. 70 Uighurs were recently arrested in the Silk Road city of Kashgar. And because they're Muslim, they're much vulnerable than Buddhists to being called terrorists in the eyes of the world.
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Lodi Gyari, envoy of the Dalai Lama, asks Beijing to keep the torch out of Tibet. He also says the situation in Tibet is "grim". Norway may also skip the opening ceremonies. The EU calls inviting the DL to Brussels "doable."
More arrests in Burma: 52 since January.
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Nicholas Kristof:
So what do we do? A boycott of the Olympic Games themselves is a nonstarter. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has raised the possibility of a boycott of the opening ceremony, and that is plausible.
The best answer is: Postpone the decision until the last minute so as to extort every last ounce of good behavior possible out of the Chinese government — on Darfur as well as Tibet. But at the end of the day, if there have been no further abuses, President Bush should attend — for staying away would only inflame Chinese nationalism and make Beijing more obdurate.
If President Bush attends the ceremonies, however, he should balance that with a day trip to a Tibetan area.
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When I was in my early twenties, I suffered such a painful falling out with my parents that the estrangement lasted for nearly three years. During that time the three of us spoke not one word to each other. I was accused of an act of which I was innocent. My mother, swayed by circumstances that suggested otherwise, remained convinced of guilt.
I’d returned from my two years military duty in Germany with the intention of making the family farm my life’s work. I’d temporarily moved into the bedroom that my brother, Rowland , and I once shared, planning to move into a place of my own as soon as Shirley Rice and I, to whom I was engaged, were married. Though the date was set for June 10th and we were already into the month of May, it was clear that Father was not pleased with the prospect of having a grown son living back home, however temporarily.
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Beijing claims the "Dalai clique" is planning Olympic attacks. The Chinese leadership must be feeling a little nervous with protests having spread to the Muslim northwest of the country. With so many foreign journalists around they can hardly fake the attacks, as some claim they did in Lhasa. They want things to be smooth, but are hedging their bets in case they aren't, and will use the West's favorite buzzword: terrorism. In fact, it's surprising the Dalai Lama hasn't been labeled a terrorist or equated with Osama Bin Laden. Oh, wait.
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Scientists in Britain study meditation and its effects on the brain. (The government funds this?) The popular Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is discussed.
MBCT is recommended for people who are not currently depressed, but who have had three or more bouts of depression in their lives.
Trials suggest that the course reduces the likelihood of another attack of depression by over 50%.
The National Health Service pays for MBCT.
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China has been talking about suicide bombings in Tibet for a while now, perhaps in order to capture the Western obsession with terrorism, but so far nothing like this seems to have happened. It is true that the Tibet protests have spread unrest to other minorities, including western China's considerable Muslim population.
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Tibet is a ticklish subject for India:
India enjoys a trading relationship with China expected to be worth $40 billion this year. At the same time, it hosts the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, his exile government and his followers. Authorities in Beijing have accused the Dalai Lama of fomenting the recent Tibet protests.
"It is a difficult position for India," said Kanwal Sibal, a former Indian foreign secretary. "We gave asylum to the Dalai Lama and his followers on the condition that they would not conduct political activities on Indian soil.
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Interesting article in the New York Times today about how we often fail to notice change, even when it's right in front of our eyes. Would meditators do better on the test given in the article than non-meditators? What do we choose to pay attention to? How much attention do we pay to the world around us? For most of us, the answer is Not much, the article concludes.
Plus: the Dalai Lama's blog. Satire alert.
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The Olympic torch begins its journey in Beijing and will soon be split into two flames. One will be sent to Lhasa for the Everest trip, and the other is going to Almaty, Kazakhstan to begin a five-continent tour including San Francisco.
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